Tag: Barack Obama

Now that Donald Trump is President of the United States some of my Democratic Party political friends have suddenly woken up to the horrors that have continued from the Barack Obama administration. This past year, Democratic leaders have put forth their political theater shenanigans by displaying feigned outrage over government spending, loss of freedoms, and loss of privacy protections for their American brethren. Where were you over the last several years? Why did you not voice this outrage while your party leader was our President?

Most Dems remained silent as Obama’s administration bombed the hell out of various countries around the world, killing and maiming countless innocent lives. Most Democrats remained silent as their leaders have caused our nation to rack up crippling debt and our privacy protections have eroded. Most Democrats championed Obama when he simply wrote a “memo” which they thought was going to end the “War on Drugs.” Obama could have easily gone much farther to end the pain, suffering, and increased the freedom of millions of Americas by truly ending the “War on Drugs” but stood by as its Commander in Chief.

For the few that remained vigilant, I applaud you. For those who ignored the travesties, I welcome you to the Libertarian mission to maximize the freedom of Americans and hope you are not just acting because someone you dislike or hate is occupying the White House. As a Libertarian, it does not matter to me if a Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian is our president. If freedoms are lost, then we cannot stand by and let them be taken. We must fight back regardless of our political affiliation, regardless of which “team” has control of Congress. If you are sick of the political theater put on by your political party, perhaps it is time to change your voter registration to Libertarian and vote for Libertarian Party candidates. It is within the Libertarian Party where you will find the true #Resistance movement.

So, pardon me if I seem a bit cynical by this most recent statement from our Democratic Party leaders who have recently “discovered” the abuses of our federal government on innocent Americans. You see, all of Florida is within a 100-mile immigration inspection zone. There was an incident last week in Fort Lauderdale which got nationwide attention and properly enraged many Americans. It involves innocent Americans being questioned on a bus about their citizenship by federal authorities. But this has been going on for years — literally. Started in 2006 as a small program, it ballooned over the Obama administration. Not only have federal officers been boarding buses and trains en masse we now have “do nothing” immigration checkpoints well over 50 miles inside our borders. Libertarians have been voicing our opposition to this practice for years which fell on deaf ears.

This week, Ted Deutch and a long list of Dems issued the following statement:

“We were appalled to see U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents abusing their mandate and authority to arbitrarily board a bus to demand that all passengers produce identification and documentation.

“We support strengthening our border protections against external threats and bolstering our officials in their work to keep Americans safe. However, arbitrary and disruptive enforcement actions like this do not make our communities safer. Rather, they waste taxpayer resources, cruelly dehumanize people who have not committed any crimes, and erode our fundamental rights. Identification is not required to ride a bus from one Florida city to another.

“While the law gives U.S. CBP officials the authority to conduct transportation checks within a reasonable distance from the border, this event and others like it across the country show that Congress must conduct a comprehensive review of what ‘reasonable distance’ means. The 100-mile border zone established by U.S. regulations arbitrarily extends CBP jurisdiction and undercuts the rights for citizens and legal residents to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. In Florida, this arbitrary zone puts everyone in the state under constant threat of stops, interrogations, and searches without even the most basic due process protections.

“We regret that visitors to Fort Lauderdale were subjected to this raid, and will work together to push for reasonable limits on border agent authority that protect our civil liberties.”

Yesterday, June 25, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that it is constitutional for the government to subsidize American’s health insurance premiums. The case was King et al. v. Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al. where the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was being challenged as being unconstitutional. More specifically the case surrounded as to whether the subsidies could be provided by the federal government to residents of states that did not set up health care exchanges.

The ACA (commonly referred to as Obamacare) forces the government and employers of certain employees to pay for American’s health insurance premiums paid to insurance companies. As expected, health care stocks went through the roof on the stock market yesterday as now hospitals and insurance companies are guaranteed a large number of additional customers paid for by the American taxpayers. Nearly 9 million Americans receive an average of $272 per month subsidy to pay for their health insurance premiums.

“And if we can’t ask from society’s lottery winners to just make that modest investment, then really this conversation is for show.” This is the statement from Barack Obama earlier this week (see below) when he furthered his attempt to divide the wealthy and the poor. Specifically, Obama was speaking about the wealthiest Americans; however, he fails to credit the hard work, integrity, risk and sacrifice many of those individuals endured to get where they are – whether hedge fund managers, real estate investors, business owners or technology company founders. Obama was not describing silver spooned inheritance driven Americans, he was describing America’s financiers — and his statement completely dismisses and discredits their hard work. The statement comes from forcing more wealthy Americans to pay more to subsidize the failing government school system.

Obama states in his comments, that he does not find the wealthy “evil” but does want the top 5 percent of Americans to pay more than the 50%+ in taxes than they are now. Utilizing government doublespeak he said about hedge fund managers, “I’m saying, that you’re a lower rate than a lot of folks who are making $300,000 per year. You pretty much have more than you will ever be able to use and more than your family will ever be able to use; there’s a fairness issue involved here.”

Obama’s statement implies the wealthiest Americans don’t work for the money they have earned Obama also should have mentioned that, from a global perspective, all Americans are lottery winners simply due to the country we were fortunate enough to be born — a capitalistic society that rewards hard work. Big time Obama supporter, Warren Buffett himself, has said, “I won the lottery the day I emerged from the womb by being in the United States instead of in some other country where my chances would have been way different.” Buffett also astutely states that being born in America will get you so far on its own — it is what you do with it that matters. He is a strong believer in hard work, integrity, hiring quality people and a strong sense of economics is what makes businesses successful. He does leave out a cozy relationship with the right people in Washington, D.C. as Buffett utilizes a healthy dose of crony capitalism for profit.

I wonder if Obama would call hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones a “lottery winner?” Jones is a major philanthropist and is the founder of the Robin Hood Foundation. It does work the government will not do or better yet, cannot do. I do not need to wonder if Obama would call the Koch Brothers “lottery winners.” I believe he would, even though, through hard work, the brothers have transformed their father’s business into the second largest private corporation in America while donating hundreds of millions of their own money to quality charities. Would Obama call Wayne Huizenga a “lottery winner?”

The simple point is when Barack Obama makes statements like these, he ignores and trivializes the heroic efforts of the American business person. He ignores the tremendous number of hours people put into their businesses and the sacrifices they endure to succeed. The result of their success is job production, more money for taxes and more money for charities. Belittling these Americans is shameful as their contributions they have made to America has brought this country to be the leading financial center of the world.

Perhaps, a change to the tax system is in order to make it fairer for everyone. Perhaps the FairTax may be the best option for America and it would eliminate the tax argument of the rich versus the poor.

“And if we can’t ask from society’s lottery winners to just make that modest investment, then really this conversation is for show.” This is the statement from Barack Obama earlier this week (see below) when he furthered his attempt to divide the wealthy and the poor. Specifically, Obama was speaking about the wealthiest Americans; however, he fails to credit the hard work, integrity, risk and sacrifice many of those individuals endured to get where they are – whether hedge fund managers, real estate investors, business owners or technology company founders. Obama was not describing silver spooned inheritance driven Americans, he was describing America’s financiers — and his statement completely dismisses and discredits their hard work. The statement comes from forcing more wealthy Americans to pay more to subsidize the failing government school system.

Obama states in his comments, that he does not find the wealthy “evil” but does want the top 5 percent of Americans to pay more than the 50%+ in taxes than they are now. Utilizing government doublespeak he said about hedge fund managers, “I’m saying, that you’re a lower rate than a lot of folks who are making $300,000 per year. You pretty much have more than you will ever be able to use and more than your family will ever be able to use; there’s a fairness issue involved here.”

Obama’s statement implies the wealthiest Americans don’t work for the money they have earned Obama also should have mentioned that, from a global perspective, all Americans are lottery winners simply due to the country we were fortunate enough to be born — a capitalistic society that rewards hard work. Big time Obama supporter, Warren Buffett himself, has said, “I won the lottery the day I emerged from the womb by being in the United States instead of in some other country where my chances would have been way different.” Buffett also astutely states that being born in America will get you so far on its own — it is what you do with it that matters. He is a strong believer in hard work, integrity, hiring quality people and a strong sense of economics is what makes businesses successful. He does leave out a cozy relationship with the right people in Washington, D.C. as Buffett utilizes a healthy dose of crony capitalism for profit.

I wonder if Obama would call hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones a “lottery winner?” Jones is a major philanthropist and is the founder of the Robin Hood Foundation. It does work the government will not do or better yet, cannot do. I do not need to wonder if Obama would call the Koch Brothers “lottery winners.” I believe he would, even though, through hard work, the brothers have transformed their father’s business into the second largest private corporation in America while donating hundreds of millions of their own money to quality charities. Would Obama call Wayne Huizenga a “lottery winner?”

The simple point is when Barack Obama makes statements like these, he ignores and trivializes the heroic efforts of the American business person. He ignores the tremendous number of hours people put into their businesses and the sacrifices they endure to succeed. The result of their success is job production, more money for taxes and more money for charities. Belittling these Americans is shameful as their contributions they have made to America has brought this country to be the leading financial center of the world.

Perhaps, a change to the tax system is in order to make it fairer for everyone. Perhaps the FairTax may be the best option for America and it would eliminate the tax argument of the rich versus the poor.

Taking any stance on 9/11 earns you trouble. I know, because I lost two valued friends over it. Remarkably, their positions were polar opposites! So I know lots of folks won’t like what I wrote today. They’ll leave us.

That’s why, today, it’s just not enough to send a letter to Congress, as crucial as that is! We need your financial support, so that we can keep taking firm and principled stands like this.